Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Why the Brady Campaign Often Fails-and How They Can Achive Success (Part 4)

In Part 3 of this series, I outlined the strategy. Here come the tactics.1. Deny gunloons what they most desire. Guns? Nope. Acceptance. What gunloons really want more than anything is an acceptance of their gunloonery as 'normal' or mainstream. It's not and it's easy enough to show this. Tactic: go to gun shows and events--show what's going on there. Here's a sample.In the past, the Brady Campaign, VPC, etc. have been good about posting transcripts of lunatic gunloon craziness--but pictures convey the message that words can't.2. More stings. Gunloons hate this. And the media loves undercover investigations.3. Ridicule is your friend. Too often, the BC and VPC get too preachy; gun violence is a serious issue. But you can influence public opinion with facts and ridicule. See tactic 1, gunloons provide an extremely rich environment for ridicule.4. Target specific audiences. It's all well and good to create an ad that says 30,000 Americans will die from guns this year. It's far better to pinpoint a demographic and pursue it. Example: target soccer moms. How? Note the NRA wants guns on campus. Believe me, mom and dad are nervous enough about little Johnny or little Mary going off to college with its drinking, drugs, sex and all sorts of dangers--do you think they'd want to add guns to that mix?5. Put the profit(or non-profit)in gun control. Push for legislation requiring gun owners have gun insurance. Do you think the insurance industry might be interested in this market? You bet they would. If you're quesy about insurance company profits--how about legislating insurance company profits, all or some, go to something like scholarships for the kids of police officers killed in the line of duty or the like?....To Be Continued....

25 comments:

Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha! An LOL just wasn't enough for this post, If I'd been drinking milk it would have come out my nose!

But seriously ... it was funny enough that a 4th rate blogger thought he had the answer that would allow the anti-gun groups, who have been around for decades and have full time lawyers and activists and consultants, how to succeed when they are failing so miserably.

But now that I see what you have ... let me just set you straight. Item by item:

1. Your link has some extremist pictures, it's true. But tens of thousands of people go to gun shows every weekend, and 99% of us are normal people. We all know there are some extremist out there but they damned sure don't represent the majority of us.

2. Fine. Catch some criminals. No big deal.

3. The trouble with this is that a lot of ridicule from mouth-breathing anti-gunners who don't understand history, the constitution, human nature or the basis of liberty doesn't mean much. When you mock people who support freedom and are willing to invest time and effort to protect their families you come off like the grasshopper mocking the ant for saving up food for Winter. Doesn't really work well for you ...

4. The anti-gunners are doing this. It is getting some traction in specific areas, but overall we are still winning. We'll win this one too - we're already only one court win away from winning in Colorado.

5. Even if this would pass constitutional muster (Mayor Daley of Chicago gave up on it, and he's considerably smarter than you) you have to get elected officials in who will pass it ... and if you could do that, you'd be able to get an AWB, stop concealed carry in National Parks, on Amtrak trains ... etc. You don't have the votes, dude. And there are millions of us working to see that you don't get those votes.

So you gave me some good laughs with this series of posts, and I'm grateful. But now let me give you some actual advice on what will work:

The problem is that right now the anti-gun groups have few followers and -- through using the very tactics you describe above -- have been losing the public opinion battle for decades.

What you need to do is get several million followers to join anti-gun groups, vote anti-gun, and get at least enough money to have lobbyists in every state and with the Feds. And make sure politicians know what will happen if they don't support you (because right now it's nothing, whereas if they screw the gun lobby they end up out of office)

But the problem is ... that ain't gonna happen. The American people are too smart to fall for the crap you describe, and since the anti-gunners have not one scrap of scientific evidence to say that more guns cause more death, or that legal CCW doesn't save more lives than it endangers, you're going to keep losing.

And the NRA, that 2 - 4 million member organization that fights for the liberty and rights of us all (thank God they are there to keep us safe!) will be there fighting you every inch of the way.

Number 5 would never work as the insurance lobby is in the pocket of the party that's in the gun lobby's pocket

Dunno about that. But I do know all businesses tend to align with whomever can bring them a lot more business/profit. So, we're talking about a potential market of 800 eleventy gazillion gunowners (or whatever number you folks are claiming today).

1. Having been to many gunshows, your claim that 99% are 'normal' is grossly exaggerated. That aside, as illustrated in my example, it's not just the patrons--but the vendors. I've never been to a gunshow where there wasn't some vendor hawking white supremacist trash and/or whatever latest conspiracy nonsense.2. We agree.3. Again, there's a fine line between 'freedom fighter' and terrorist. NRA member Tim McVeigh? The obvious point is that the vast majority of Americans don't want to live next door to some fat white redneck who owns an arsenal.4. We agree--its but just one example.5. This is actually a brilliant idea--who can argue against gunowners actually having to take responsibility?

"Tactic: go to gun shows and events--show what's going on there. Here's a sample.In the past, the Brady Campaign, VPC, etc. have been good about posting transcripts of lunatic gunloon craziness--but pictures convey the message that words can't."

The problem with that list is that for a lot of those organizations gun control is pretty far down their priority list. Most of them don’t actively work for gun control. Clearly the International Women’s Garment Workers Association has bigger fish to fry. The point of this list is that gun owning lawyers who are members of the ABA can object to their organization heads donating money that counters their interests. That is what grass roots is all about.

I shouldn't be helping you out like this, Jade, but it's just so much fun to correct you ...

1. Repeating the "big lie" over and over again only works for a short time. And that time is already past. The fact is that the most common gun show visitor (and I work many gun shows, signing more grass roots members up to the NRA) is the same as the most common CCW holder -- a middle class white male. In Colorado gun shows there are also a lot of latinos given our population make-up, and while African American's are under represented by % of population there are quite a number. To show the extremes of diversity, at the last gun show I worked I spent some time talking to an obviously gay older couple, one black and one white, who were there to buy holsters.

Of course you will find at least one book booth selling a wide variety of books, and some I'm not fond of, but they are a distinct exception. And if you believe in the 1st amendment (as all 2nd amendment believers do) they have every right to be there.

There is also plenty of WWII memorabilia for sale from both sides, but mostly from legitimate war souvenier collectors and reenactors. But by all means ... keep making redneck jokes and etc. It just shows how out of touch you are.

The bottom line is 99% plus of the people at gun shows are from main stream/middle class America, and of the hundreds of booths you'll find maybe one or two that are objectionable and NONE are openly racist.

In terms of insurance for gun owners ... freedoms and the inherent risks are something we all share. You don't make political pundits take out insurance in case they use their freedom of speech to get a socialist elected and cost us all trillions of dollars in debt. And while everyone's responsible for their own actions, you don't make people who exercise the civil liberty of owning a firearm buy insurance to enjoy that right. Duh.

And like I said ... if you can get the political will to pass an insurance law, you could also pass other anti-gun laws. And you can't.

But in any case, I just wanted to take a moment to thank you.

Thanks ... for trying to make sure the anti-gunners keep fighting, and losing, the battle the same way they have for decades.

Thanks ... for once again showing that anti-gunners have no intellectual arguments, but just a lot of fear mongering and insults.

Thanks ... for continuing to look like a fool for declaring every group that has some kind of anti-gun statement as a committed anti-gun group.

As long as people like you are driving the anti-gun movement, we'll keep winning. And I love winning.

Quotes for you to ponder:‘Guns are an abomination.’ Free from fear of gun owners’ retaliation at the polls, he favored making handguns illegal and requiring licenses for hunting rifles.

‘I support the Brady Bill, and I urge the Congress to enact it without further delay.’

"nothing in our opinion should be taken to cast doubt on longstanding prohibitions on the possession of firearms by felons and the mentally ill, or laws forbidding the carrying of firearms in sensitive places such as schools and government buildings, or laws imposing conditions and qualifications on the commercial sale of arms."

'It is important to keep in mind that Heller, while striking down a law that prohibited the possession of handguns in the home, recognized that the right to keep and bear arms is not “a right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose.”'

Obama didn’t follow-up on any of his gun control promises winning him an F grade from the Bradys. But that doesn’t mean it can’t happen in the future, so yes, the NRA is right to take gun control and their enemies seriously. But when they do that, you call it fear mongering. This is an excerpt from that pamphlet you referenced earlier:

"Acting alone and in shadowycoalitions, these enemies offreedom are preparing for aprofound and forebodingconfrontation in which they willnot make the mistakes of their predecessors. We’d better be ready."

If this is all fear mongering, that would imply you gun controllers are actually weak, disorganized, ill-funded, and will keep repeating the same mistakes over and over. Straight up question Jade, should the NRA and other gun rights activists take the gun control movement seriously?

And how many anti-gun promises has Mr. Obama kept? He may be a rock star in certain circles that won despite being anti-gun, but he knows better than to force his party to oppose gun owners.

Thus he signed into law the ability to carry guns in National Parks, transport them on Amtrak trains, and has done nothing but speak against support of an AWB (since taking office). If not for his prior history, he'd be an A rated NRA candidate.

Of course gun owners don't win every election. Duh. But we have enough control in enough elections to do what we need to do. And bottom line ... we win way more than anti-gunners.

And with Heller/Mcdonald, we've got some muscle in the courts as well.

I'm waiting, I'm waiting ... in you're case, while you're waiting you might want to but some extra thick Depends. After the next election, I think we're going to give you much cause to lose bowel control! ;-)

Stephen: Ever notice how your much-heralded "triumphs" are always tucked into the back of other bills?

It seems pretty apparent the NRA or any other gunloon group isn't willing to let any initiative stand or fall on its own merits.

Meanwhile, the NRA is spending your money on defeating Kagan. Which, BTW, everyone knows isn't gonna happen. Really, you may as well set your cash on fire because you'd actaully get more from that act.